Improve your Landscape Photography – 5 Basic Tips

Today I am sharing some easy steps to improve your landscape photography. Great results are not only connected to any special camera gear or an additional post processing software, it’s mainly about the photography itself. This article should help you to understand some basic rules, which have a great impact on your landscape photography.

A lot of people declare aspects like perspective, angle and depth as trivial basics. But nevertheless, most of them are not even close to master these important parts of the pictorial design. Always keep in mind: Start from the bottom and work hard on your skills to achieve outstanding photographic results.

Choose the right Perspective: Low Angle

The choice of the right perspective is one of the most important aspects to create atmosphere in a picture. There is not “one” angle to achieve the perfect shot. It highly depends on the personal style and the main goal of the photographer.

Still, I highly recommend a low angle for landscape photography. It creates a visual connection to the foreground and offers the possibility to lead the viewers eye through the composition.

Low Perspective for better Pictures: The Alpsee in Schwangau.

Improve your Landscape Photography: Leading Lines

I already mentioned the importance of the viewers eye in the previous part. The relevance of this aspect can be verified by leading lines. You can use them to outline the most important aspects in your shot.

The first step contains the right choice of the main element in the picture. This could be a remarkable mountain peak or the place where the sun sets. Afterwards, it is really important to find natural objects, which lead the eye to this spot. This can be a river, a trail or further natural lines.

Landscape Photography at White Rock: Leading Lines to the Sunset.

Better Images: The perfect Moment

The quality of a picture is highly dependend on the right timing. It creates the disered light atmosphere, which is the most important part of landscape photography. It’s the light that defines a image.

I already saw so many photographers who left there photo location already five minutes after the sunset. They all missed the wonderful afterglow during the blue hour. So take your time!

Perfect Timing for better Images: Glowing Clouds in Nicaragua.

Depth in Landscape Photography: Create Reality

Besides the composition itself, depth can create an effect that makes a landscape shot look like reality. Reality, that arouses emotions and makes the viewer feel like he is standing right in front of the scenery.

The three relevant parts to form depth are the foreground, middle ground and background (Rule of Third). If you fill these parts with natural objects and combine them in the right way, you can achieve a perfect shot.

Advance your Creativity: Break the Rules!

On the one hand all of these rules are crucial to understand landscape photography, but on the other hand they can restrict your creativity. Don’t copy other photographers to improve your landscape photography. Never loose your personal instinct. Understand the rules, but don’t hesitate to break them!

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” – Pablo Picasso